Both the men’s and women’s UConn track and field teams wrapped up their weekend in Philadelphia on Saturday after competing in the Penn Relays at the University of Pennsylvania.
The Huskies fared well at the 129th Penn Relays, with a fistful of podium performances and other top 10 finishes.
In the women’s field, Natalia Surdej finished sixth in the hammer throw with a mark of 58.67 meters, which happened on Thursday. Maresa Hense finished fifth in the women’s long jump at 5.88 meters.
Jessica Starr set a personal best in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 59.56, according to the university athletics website. Starr’s time is also good for second in program history.
The women’s team recorded five other finishers etching themselves into program history, including Jenna Zydanowicz’s personal best in the 1,500- meter at 4:18.03, the third fastest time in outdoor program history.
Other notable finishers included Sarah Trainor, who set a personal best in the 5,000 meter steeplechase with a time of 10:05.46 (second in program history), Chloe Trudel setting a personal best in the 5,000 meter with a time of 16:34.51 and both the DMR (Rahm, Rice, Mayer and Kiplimo) and SMR (Kozak, Braunstein, Davis and Rice) teams reaching top 10 marks in program history.
The men’s field team had six notable finishers. Travis Roux finished sixth in the hammer throw with a mark of 59.82 meters and set a personal best in the discus at 52.19 meters. Alex Krause finished 10th in the hammer throw at 57.87 meters.
Marc Morrison finished fourth in the long jump with a 7.47-meter mark. Kasey Savage finished sixth at 7.41 meters.
Men’s track saw two notable personal bests and one top five finish. Griffin Mandirola set a personal best in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, hitting the 8:56.08 mark to notch the fifth fastest time in program history.
Terell Williams finished fourth in the 110-meter hurdles with a blistering 13.96 mark.
The 4×400 meter team of Brendan Kovar, Mekhi Stone, Del Lindsay and OJ Singletary ran a near-three minute race, finishing in 3:09.66 to become the third fastest team in program history.
Patrick Oatman hit the five-meter mark in the pole vault to jump into the program top 10.
“The Penn relays 2025 didn’t disappoint! We had an amazing weekend, with so many breakthrough performances and top 10 marks for our history books,” Director of Track and Field Beth Alford-Sullivan said on the track and field website. “It was a great celebration of our sport on a worldwide level. Now we will focus on being healthy, getting through finals and being prepared for the BIG EAST championship at home!”
The Huskies will next be in action on May 3, running at the Jay Carisella Coaches Invitational hosted on the campus of Northeastern University before preparing for the BIG EAST Outdoor Championships on May 15 through 17.